Barbell coaching without the padding.
Starting Strength Radio treats strength training as a practical problem to solve, not a lifestyle mood board. Episodes move from seminars, camps, and gym updates into hard-nosed talk about presses, deadlifts, older lifters, hormones, AI, markets, and whatever else gets dragged back under the bar.
PRESS PLAY
Starting Strength Radio is a strength-training show that keeps returning to the same hard center: the barbell, the lifter, the coach, and the decision in front of them. It talks like a gym-floor argument with a microphone nearby. Recent episodes cover presses, deadlifts, squat camps, coach preparation, Starting Strength gyms, testosterone, peptides, AI, targeted advertising, the economy, energy, and the practical business of training real people. The training material is the anchor. A question about an older beginner deadlifting becomes a sharp warning about volume, soreness, and how easily bad judgment can drive a fragile client away. A stalled overhead press becomes a discussion of frequency, heavy triples, singles, and the sensitivity of press technique. The show likes specifics. It names lifts, seminars, camps, gyms, and coaching routes instead of floating above the work. It also digresses freely. AI and online advertising can sit beside barbell training because the show treats technology and markets as things worth arguing about, then eventually pulls the conversation back toward useful judgment. The Q&A format gives it much of its shape. Listeners write in or call, and the answers often arrive with correction first and bedside manner second. That directness is part of the appeal. It can be funny, impatient, repetitive, and deliberately rough around the edges. Health episodes lean into testosterone, injections, creams, gels, dosing, and telemedicine, with named guests brought in for the discussion. Economy and energy episodes broaden the frame further, especially when Karl Denninger appears. The result is not a tidy fitness podcast. It is a long-running, opinion-heavy coaching room for people who care about getting stronger and are willing to follow the argument wherever it goes.
Made for: For lifters, strength coaches, gym owners, and serious beginners who want direct barbell advice, programming talk, and strong opinions. Best for listeners who prefer correction over motivation.
What sets it apart: The show combines technical lifting answers with argumentative digressions into health, technology, markets, and gym business. It feels less like polished fitness media and more like an experienced coach refusing to let sloppy thinking pass.
Starting Strength is the bestselling book on the most fundamental and effective approach to strength training ever written. Mark Rippetoe hosts Starting Strength Radio where he discusses topics of interest, primarily to him, but perhaps also to you.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Starting Strength Radio makes barbell programming legible by turning lifters' specific problems into direct discussions of load, volume, technique, and recovery.
Starting Strength Radio turns barbell training into a practical argument about programming, technique, recovery, and coaching judgment. Mark Rippetoe answers questions directly, often working from a lifter's exact sets and reps to adjustments in frequency, load, or exercise…
Starting Strength Radio moves you from press programming to AI anxiety without lowering its voice.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A seminar-and-gym update gives way to a blunt talk about AI, targeted ads, and live radio.
Starting Strength Radio #347 begins with seminar dates, squat and deadlift camps, and gym updates before settling into a longer exchange about AI, targeted ads, and the way Google and YouTube keep feeding people what they already clicked.
A practical TRT discussion on injection precision, topical exposure, and the social baggage around needles.
Starting Strength Radio brings testosterone replacement into the everyday setting of gym talk, with Dr. Whitmer discussing growth in the business and why injections have become more accepted for many people.
Too much work on day one can leave a new lifter too sore to come back.
This episode is a blunt Q&A about how to train frail, older lifters without burying them in soreness. Its advice is practical and easy to follow: begin with low volume, build toward one work set, and keep new lifters from getting so sore that they cannot move normally the next…
A stuck press becomes a practical lesson in frequency, variation, and progress with limited equipment.
Starting Strength Radio's call-in Q&A turns a stuck press into a plain-spoken discussion about frequency, technique, and the real purpose of a light day.
A Starting Strength conversation lands best when GPU pricing turns production limits into something concrete.
Starting Strength Radio brings barbell culture into contact with market anxiety, using a talk with Carl to weigh what people expect an economy to deliver against what it can actually make.
A hard-edged case for heavy, incremental barbell training as the driver of adaptation.
Starting Strength Radio treats strength training as a matter of pressure, not preference. The episode lays out adaptation as something forced by stress: a final squat set of five should be heavy enough that the next rep is in doubt, while each load increase still has to be small…
A cataract-surgery question anchors a concrete return-to-training plan before the episode drifts through London, wool, and Pendleton shirts.
Starting Strength Radio works best when it stays close to the bar, and its answer to a 73-year-old lifter considering cataract surgery gives this episode a clear center.
Strength principles for real-life training.
Practical strength, movement, and recovery coaching.
Strength talk with coaching substance.
Strength talk from the gym’s weird corner.
This episode announces upcoming Starting Strength seminars and training camps while emphasizing their focus on methodical strength training over aesthetics.
This episode of Starting Strength Radio features an interview with Stan Efferding discussing building physical capital and promoting upcoming seminars and training camps.
Mark Rippetoe hosts Starting Strength Radio #249, opening with announcements for upcoming seminars and camps.
Mark Rippetoe hosts Starting Strength Radio episode 297, focusing on strength training programming and biology.
Rip, Rusty, and Nick work through a stack of printed listener questions, covering orthotic inserts in lifting shoes, a wife's ostomy bag, and a mother with a PD catheter.
Starting Strength Radio opens with housekeeping.
Starting Strength Radio #346 with Dr.
Starting Strength Radio opens with a joke about classic blunders and then settles into housekeeping.
This episode announces upcoming Starting Strength seminars and training camps, provides updates on gym openings, and encourages listeners to consider becoming coaches.
This episode announces upcoming Starting Strength seminars, training camps, and coaching courses while promoting gym ownership opportunities.
The hosts take a call from a lifter whose press has stopped moving.
The show opens with seminar dates, squat and deadlift camps, gym promos, and a reminder about the online store.
This episode promotes upcoming Starting Strength seminars and training camps while encouraging listeners to join the Starting Strength Network for exclusive content.
This episode promotes upcoming Starting Strength seminars, training camps, and an online coaching development course for strength training enthusiasts.
This episode promotes Starting Strength seminars and camps, detailing their schedule, structure, and benefits for improving barbell lifts and strength training.